My Review of Deepwater Horizon
When it comes to the acting in this film, there is not that much to say. Every single actor puts a good performance in but I don’t think any of the performances deserve Oscar credit. But they don’t have to, everyone is just solid. Even Dylan O’Brien shows up and proves he’s not just the Maze Runner kid. Although, the two stand outs are definitely Kurt Russell and Mark Wahlberg. Russell manages to make you actually scared of his character. He never shouts at anyone or flips any tables, he just has this aura where you become incredibly intimidated by him. He also performs very well after the action starts. Going through the movie I wasn’t really thinking about Wahlberg and his performance. But when it comes to maybe the last 20 minutes, he blew my mind. His reaction to the event is chilling and very emotionally resonating.
I really enjoy all the relationships in the film. Wahlberg and his family, Kate Hudson and Stella Anderson, are great. They even have a scene together which actually brought me to tears. This is the first film in history that I have cried at. That just shows you how you get invested in the characters and build an actual emotional rapport with the characters. The respect between all the crew members is also executed well, you believe that these men would put themselves in danger to protect each other. I also loved the relationships between the crew members and the corporate guys. Whenever any of them are in the same room together the tension that builds up is immense and very entertaining.
I think this might be my first Peter Berg film and what an introduction it is to his direction. Just watching this film without any knowledge of the director I genuinely feel that you would think this guy is one of the best in the business. He makes use of imagery in a very interesting way. It isn’t subtle but you don’t care it is executed extremely well. There are some moments which will stay with me for a long time and I think that has got to be down to Berg. At this point in the year, with a lot more films to come out, I believe that if the Oscars were now then Berg would win the Oscar for best director.
I just really love and admire the choices the film makes. Of course the men from corporate are portrayed as immoral money hoarders. However, in this film (as it probably was in real life) it’s not 100% their fault. They push for results, of course, but they have reasons for doing it. The just don’t say “drill now because I want money to pay for my new Porsche”. There are legitimate and almost logical reasons for why they wanted to move forward. I think portraying the business side to the story like this was a definitely the right choice, it never gets ‘preachy’, you always believe every characters’ motivations. This is just one of the examples of the film choosing when to be ‘Hollywoody’ and when not to be. It is at sometimes clichéd but you don’t care because the clichés are used well. But don’t be fooled, this s a brutally realistic film. For example, when people smash they’re head on a counter, they actually die, you see the blood splatter. Small details like this all add up to the greatness of this film. The scale of everything in this film is incredible, I love the look of the actual rig it looks like it could actually be in use.
I’d say going into this film with little to no knowledge of the event benefited me greatly. I didn’t really understand what was going on at moments which actually enhances it as a thriller. It makes your thoughts as erratic as the men on that rig. This also helped in the build up to the actual disaster. I had no idea when everything was going to go down. Every time it shows a small crack I thought the action was going to kick in, I was constantly on edge for the whole 108 minutes. I may have enjoyed the build up to the action but when it gets started it is just pure insanity. You have no idea who was going to die, any pipe could explode and kill any character.
I’ve been racking my brain trying to find some negative things to talk about when it comes to this film. I have maybe two and they are complete nitpicks that I feel I have to say just to be seen as impartial. For some people, maybe the first half of the film drags a bit. It could’ve been a bit shorter. Also some of the CGI is a bit poor at random points, which is a bit jarring. That is actually it, that’s all I can think of. This film is seriously good.
This is definitely one of or maybe the best films of the year in my opinion. I adore these kind of films, a chilling true story which makes you question humanity and then just fills you with so much hope that it is pouring out of you. The best thing I can maybe say about this film is that the first thing I did when I got home from seeing the film I instantly went to research the spill. I was fixated on learning more and that is all down to this film.
